Hush 2 the movie will live long in the minds of those who went to the cinema to watch it. People gasped in silence as they were presented with the drama of a father raping his own daughters. They cheered out loud when the police finally got their man and ‘helped’ him confess.

So what’s it all about?

Hush 2 is a riveting drama which takes a peek into a family ravaged by an undercurrent of drugs, violence and abuse. Life for 15 year old Mikisha has been tough over the last year after she becomes pregnant by her boyfriend. She has no job and wants to finish school. Her mother, a single mum, is suffering financially. Will she turn to her boyfriend for help even though his life continues on a downward spiral into drugs.

The movie might end with the message of forgiveness, but I’d guess that many against the death penalty would be the first to start the injection or hang the cord around his neck (perhaps both) after Mark Daniel’s quite brilliant characterisation of the father, who also happened to be a drug gangster, a gun handler and murderer at will. Lesley Cumberbatch and Sophia Thomas are acting with quality beyond their ages. To act out such subjects must force them to take counselling after each scene. These are two ladies to watch out for in the future.

The quality of the picture from such a low budget movie is first class throughout, ably assisted by a Red camera, the best digital camera in the business. That it was donated for free along with the cast and crew is a testament to power of the story. Filmed entirely in Barbados the backdrop is of an idyllic paradise, but underneath lurks the worst hell of any family interaction.

The most ‘I’ll do anything for the movie’ award goes jointly to Claudette Wadman for wearing those curlers in her hair and to Sharon Griffith for being dressed in that green hat. Obviously anything the props people say goes.

A couple of deleted scenes have been added as extras, but more is needed. It’s hoped that by the time Hush 3 is released as a DVD, the director and writer, Macia Weekes, will have added at least an interview with some cast members and some of the crew. Looking over their Facebook account there just might be a story of internet solicitation of children and inappropriate images of and for children in the next of this trilogy. It can only get worse, which means better for those that see the movie. Forewarned is forearmed. Kids, show this motion picture to your parents. Parents and guardians, show it to your kids.

This movie is so commanding that it originally ran for eight full weeks with three shows a day to accommodate the people wanting to see it. Following this it showed in a high number of countries around the globe, passing the message about the abuse to children, often by family members. This DVD brings it to a wider audience. It could just be one of the most thoughtful presents you can give a friend.

0 stars

I just don’t get it. I quite like ‘Noir’ movies, but this wasn’t one of them. I’m not quite sure what it was, but it failed on screenplay, acting, direction, plot or on any level of interest.

A movie has to reach out and grab me in the first five minutes. This one didn’t and although I’d usually switch it off when it’s a DVD or a download and not waste my life, other reviews had said it was good and worth watching, so I persisted. Why, I now don’t know? Even as a book, I’d have returned it to the library because it wouldn’t be worth owning.

So what’s it all about?

John Rosow, a private detective has been hired to tail a man, Harold Fullmer, on a train from Chicago to Los Angeles. Persuaded by a large reward, Rosow uncovers Harold’s mysterious identity and is charged with bringing him back to his wife in New York City against his will. Ultimately Rosow must confront whether the decision to return Harold is truly the right one.

Firstly, I’m not an actor, but I’m sure we could have expected a lot more from this cast. Apart from Academy Award nominee Amy Ryan (why did she agree to appear in this?) they all appeared out of sorts. Perhaps they couldn’t understand the screenplay either.

The screenplay doesn’t make a lot on sense. There are so many plot holes that a sieve would be better protected against soup. The words meander all over the place with people’s actions not making much common sense and the ending so shallow it’s almost comprehensible, but not quite. So many important issues are not explained that we wondered why throughout the movie. The main why, was, why did we persist in staying in watching it.

The film is written and directed by Noah Buschel, a name I’m sure to avoid in the future. Mind you, this is only my opinion and if lots of people enjoyed this, then so be it. We’re all entitled to our opinion. I believe my thoughts are quite clear having been totally confused!

Four stars****

How is it possible to watch a movie with little story, hardly any plot and yet want it to go on for another hour after its 130 minutes were over?

The answer hides within the incredible Beatles’ songs. Actors Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess, Joe Anderson, Dana Fuchs. Martin Luther McCoy and T. V. Carpio bring their own skills to the well known Beatles’ songs. Dana Fuchs brings more life out of Helter Skelter and Why Don’t We Do It In The Road than the Beatles originally envisaged. Evan Rachel Wood is selected for songs that match her voice. Jim Strugess nails everything except Revolution, where it’s more the lack of punch to the music rather than his vocal performance that lets it down. I also took exception to Eddie Izzard’s Mr Kite, but he did make it fun rather than sing-able.

31 great Beatles songs and one almost not known rendition of Hold Me Tight take us on a ride where we might want to compare the songs to the originals, but we find ourselves marveling at how well crafted the lyrics are to the movie we’re watching. Dick Clement and Iain La Frenais have writer’s track records that exceed most people and while it’s obvious they made the story fit the Beatles’ lyrics, they still had to make it all glide together. Using the character names from Beatles’ songs was a nice touch, but whatever happened to Rita or did I miss the meter maid?

They’ve chosen to take us on a ride through the late sixties and early seventies in both England the US. They’ve kept the story simple and the dialogue easy to make the links through the music of the Beatles’ songs. They work strongly on the peace and war movements of those times, but don’t ram it down our throats.

The revenue didn’t make enough to cover the budget, but that may be down to the marketing as back in 2007 the movie and CD didn’t make many marketing waves.

The producers added Bono, Eddie Izzard and Salma Hayek to the mix, but their short visits were not enough to make their own fans run to buy tickets again and again.

The CD will be in my car for the next few weeks. Even though no-one can better the Beatles originals, this selection have been tastefully re-produced to avoid clashing with the songs we all know and love.

At least sympathy didn’t get Joe Cocker to modify his previous Beatles’ hit here, but to give him different songs was a better touch of emphasis to the songs performed.

Sadly, this movie didn’t gain a large theatre release due to ‘problems’ with the distributor, possibly economical. That’s a real shame because this is a real film, not a shoot ‘em up big action, explosions movie. A real film has a great script, great crew and makes you think. A real movie gets you talking well after it’s finished. We’re still talking about it in our household.

This film is supposed to ‘parallel’ the case of Valerie Plame, a CIA agent exposed by the media after her husband wrote a newspaper piece attacking government lies and manipulation (they wouldn’t do that would they?)

How this differs is that the premise may be similar, but the actions and script bear no real resemblance to the original story; this version is totally fiction; it’s just the idea that is fact. I don’t know if we’re allowed to call Plame a former CIA spy, so we won’t.

The screenplay by Rod Lurie is a masterpiece; he also directed. He holds the suspension from the first minute right through to the last. Only when the twist/reveal is disclosed do we know why a mother of a six year old would spend a year in jail refusing to name her source.

Okay, we know journalists like to keep some sources private, there’s a need if you want to be trusted in the future, but do you need to lose your husband, your job, your family and your child just to prove a point? You spend the whole movie telling her just to give up her source. This brings the movie’s only fault. Now that you know (you will when you watch it!) the source of the information, why not reveal it because nothing terrible could come from it, apart from the journalist’s sources being open to question, or perhaps that’s her point all along.

The actors had plenty to say. Kate Beckinsale as the journalist who outed a CIA agent is astonishing in her role. There is total belief in her ability to keep her secret. Why didn‘t they just torture her? Whoops, I forgot, they don’t do that anymore.

You can’t begin to like Matt Dillon’s character. He doesn’t want you to. He’s the bad guy; the prosecutor. He’s only defending the government’s right to keep CIA agents safe from the enemy while working in the field, someone else’s field. He’s consistent to the point of getting his woman prosecuted, come what may.
Vera Farmiga plays the CIA agent who has to lose her job. Her department will cover their backs by losing her. She’s so nice in many scenes, but reverts to shocking back street language when provoked (no offence back streeters).

Alan Alda, David Schwimmer and Angela Bassett all perform to the highest of their talents as the back-up teams, although we do wonder which side of the fence they really are supporting.

There are several points to this movie (all for your movie club to discuss):

Should journalists be able to maintain secrecy and protect their ‘sources’ of information?

Can the media ‘out’ a working CIA agent (and risk her life)?

Can the government force a journalist to reveal their sources?

How long can someone be held in contempt of court?

How far do you need to take your integrity, especially when you become selfish as it affects your family?

Go rent this movie; it will make you think and you will be discussing it for hours afterwards.

1 star*

This movie is not the worst film of all time, but it tries so hard to be the worst one you could ever conceive, and it fails; there are worse ones. It’s not supposed to be a comedy at all, but any regular film watcher will be in fits at the alarming rate of impending mistakes. It is excellent film school fodder to see what you can and shouldn’t do with a movie in terms of casting, script, music, direction, camera work and editing.

Where to start? The screenplay has so many clichés and expected lines you can almost play guess the next line and be correct several times. You don’t need to know the film to be able to exactly map out the plot sequence. You just know what’s going to happen next and how it will all end. The final twist is so obvious you can’t believe they actually used it. Didn’t they ask for opinions first?

Clue; next time go to this website: http://filmandmoviemaking.com/screenplay-analysis/

If the screenwriters had spent some money getting a professional to look over their script and give a coverage report before they went into production, many of the problems may have been ironed out earlier.

The dialogue was quite awful at times; many, many times.

Here’s the blurb so you know what it’s all about:

A one-time victim who had previously suffered at the hands of her violent husband joins the police force in hopes of helping others in her situation, only to find her painful past emerging from a prison cell in director Stephen Lieb’s tense revenge thriller. Bonnie Blackwell was left for dead after being beaten to within an inch of her life by her sadistic ex-husband. Bonnie is a fighter, though, and after recovering from her injuries she quickly determines to join the Los Angeles Police Department and devote her life to the prevention of domestic violence. Her husband has recently been released from prison, however, and now in order to move on with her life this former victim must make one final stand against the man who nearly took it all.

While the film stock used is excellent (well perfect for television and download because it won’t be on at a cinema near you) some of the camera work leaves a lot to be desired. There’s a classic shot of the police lady being angry with a crook. The angle of the camera ensures that we can’t see any of the anger in the actresses’ eyes as the peak cap completely covers the top half of her face.

Music should bring the whole movie together. It shouldn’t take over. The one Roland keyboard they ordered for this job is often played at volumes so loud you can’t tell what else if happening or it varies so much when people stop talking, rather than blending in.

The foley work needs improvement. The husband was slapping the wife around the face, but the slaps looked so soft they might not even have hurt. I’m not saying it wouldn’t have hurt in real life where it’s an abysmal action by any weak person, but in a movie it’s got to look like it hurts. The foley artist that put the slaps on later must have collected his noises from someone wanting to speed up their horse just before the race finish line. Even then the number of slaps didn’t agree with the number of blows from the male actor.

Regrettably the music doesn’t match what’s going on far too often. We have scenes of a woman being beaten up by her husband but the music tells us that we’re either at a fairground or a vampire movie.

The stunt work should be good. The writer, star, producer Mimi Lesseos is a great star in the world of stunt work. She can be seen in Million Dollar Baby, The Scorpion King and Gangs of New York showing off her stunt skills. Unfortunately on two occasions where she’s helping her husband out of the building (once through a door and once through a window, it’s so easy to see the stunt man jump and make the most of his quick directional movement. It looks like he’s being thrown by cannon he moves so fast in comparison to the effort (lack of or small amount) prearranged in the throwing.

Editing could have improved the movie. I get the feeling that it was the editor’s first time with the knife and he missed by inches a few times. Scenes need to flow generally speaking, but sometimes you want a complete stop and then start again. This movie shows you how to get those two the wrong way around.

Former pro-wrestler, Mimi Lesseos wrote the story and the screenplay (with Thomas Quinn). She was also the producer and the star of the movie so we can guess it must have been medium to low budget, but low budget doesn’t always have to mean that a movie looks cheap. It can be well made while costing very little.

Direction, although the actors obviously ignored such treats, was by Stephen Leib. At times it feels like a school play being filmed where the actors don’t know when to start their lines or in fact, what their lines are. They appear to be looking for their blocking (starting positions) while wondering when to start speaking.

Mimi’s new film is called ‘Double Duty.’ I sure hope she’s learnt a lot from her involvement in ‘Personal Vendetta.’

At the end of the day, Mimi has now made a few movies and whether they’re low budget or not, good or not, she can be proud to have put so many movies together. I hope they sell for more than the one dollar I paid for my DVD. She’s been there and cut her movie. Many people may moan about the qualities of movies like this one, but they have procrastinated so much they haven’t even got past the starting blocks.

(DVD 2006)

3 stars***

Basic Instinct was a spine-chilling movie, with a masterful screenplay by Joe Eszterhas. It also had one of those strange endings: it kept the audience talking and thinking – just who did commit the murders and if it was Catherine Tramell, then why didn’t she get to spend her due time in the county jail. Planned open endings usually mean there’s more to follow. These days we’d call it a franchise; a licence to print pounds and dollars.

Unfortunately, without the same writer and director we had to wait fourteen years for the follow up. There was good news though; Sharon Stone was up for another outing. Which bring us to Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction. I thought the movie needed one more watch to see if it was as poor as the critics panned it.

The start of the movie has zero to do with the conclusion of part one so we know we’re on different ground here; London to be exact, but without those usual shots of red buses, red telephone boxes, the houses of parliament and Nelson in his square with his favourite birds.

Had Stan Collymore left for Manchester United under Sir Alex Ferguson’s guidance, he almost certainly would have missed the opportunity to have Sharon Stone take his middle finger, wet it and do what she does with it, but his football career would have gone into overdrive and he’d have been a national hero, not just the hero of Southend for his one season’s exploits and the year at Nottingham Forest where his team mates didn’t share the enthusiasm for his generous goal scoring antics. I digress. Perhaps Stan proves why drivers (Sharon Stone here) shouldn’t orgasm while driving a car at over one miles an hour.

Sharon Stone owns the part of the writer turned (maybe) murderer. She’s around mid to later forties in this performance, but has the body of a twenty year old – a hot twenty. She mixes both charm and possession of anyone she talks to. It’s unfortunate that the casting doesn’t work with David Morrissey. He’s a quality actor, but he just doesn’t gel with Sharon Stone.The main detective is another good actor, but his part doesn’t come together, either.

Leora Barish and Henry Bean have completed a mammoth task with this screenplay. It spends a lot of time being in the past, but just enough of a different story line to be in the future. The critics attacked the script for being too obvious, but the twist (or was it) at the end is movie magic. I don’t care how many clever people tell me they guessed it; I didn’t. Anyone that can write the line “Don’t take it so hard — even Oedipus didn’t see his mother coming” deserves recognition.

The DVD brings a few standard extras; the making of the movie where each actor or crew member tells you that everyone, darling, was brilliant. For some reason, some copies are released as a ‘cut’ version. Better to go rent or download the uncut verison; it’s not even soft porn so there’s no reason to panic.

The deleted scenes are a rare mixture. You can see why some have been deleted, but others would have fitted in well. Presumably they were cut to keep the timing down.

There’s a collection of other scenes cut from the movie that are all over the internet under the title of ‘Basic Instinct 2, promo’. I bet you’ve typed it already while reading further. They show some sex scenes that were cut from the final movie. You can see why; you don’t need Catherine Tramell having a bisexual/lesbian relationship in front of her potential target in every film and the office desk is for work related activities, sometimes.

Now if you’ve come back from your Goole search and watched the promo you’ll know why the scenes were cut; they simply didn’t fit. A new character would need incorporating into the screenplay much earlier.

The reason the movie was put down by so many was in comparison to the original. It wasn’t a patch on the previous brilliance, but on its own it stands out as a good thriller. Sharon Stone does exactly as she’s asked even if it comes across as too strong and all her lines have at least two meanings. She is high class. The screenplay is an excellent stand alone read. Forget the first movie and treat Risk Addiction by itself.

Rumour has it that there won’t be a Basic Instinct 3, but Sharon Stone would like keep the flow going by returning as director. Does that mean she’ll keep her clothes on?

In the UK alone, the box office sales have been a few pounds under $67million.

Asda (Walmart’s UK joint venture) claims to have sold 300,000 units on Monday, which equates to:

• 10 copies a second and
• the DVD being in 15% of baskets.

Look out the US because you have the double deluxe version out on 16th December 2008.

It’s more a question of who isn’t getting it for Christmas?

Finally, the DVD we’ve all (well most of us) have been waiting for; the release of the Mamma Mia! movie on DVD.

Release dates vary around the world; in Australia it’s been available since 6th November, which may explain why there are so many copies available for free, out there on the internet and down the high street in those (cheating) cheap DVD sales where none of the artists, especially the screenplay writer, gets any money; royalties. Someone even had the cheek to use the contact page to offer me a copy a month ago!

I would guess the screenplay will be available online very soon as someone uses their DVD to scribe the script by use of their play and pause buttons. If you’re the first to do this or if you see a copy, please send me the link.

For a legitimate copy, the UK is releasing a single DVD whereas in the US the Mamma Mia! DVD is available as a two disk special edition.

I just have to decide whether to get one sent over from the UK or fly over and pick one up. With international postage expenditure the cost will be about the same, but with flying I could get it two or three days earlier.

DVD content:

Single-disc features
• Sing-along
• “The Name of the Game” deleted musical number
• Feature commentary with director Phyllida Lloyd

Two-disc special edition features:

The widescreen single-disc includes a bonus disc which includes:
• Deleted scenes
• Outtakes
• The Making of Mamma Mia! featurette
• Anatomy of a Musical Number: “Lay All Your Love on Me”
• Becoming a Singer featurette
• Behind the scenes with Amanda
• On Location in Greece featurette
• A Look Inside Mamma Mia! featurette
• “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” music video
• Björn Ulvaeus cameo

Many favourite websites are also listing a Mamma Mia gift set DVD. It all comes in a nice flashy box with a hardback journal for a few dollars/pounds more.

Please add your own reviews within the comments section.

The bottom line: buy it and wear it out. It’ll be a top seller and top of DVD charts all over the world. It’s still running at my local cinema complex, after all this time. I might just go and see it again on the big screen before I get the DVD for the small screen.

It could be the most given Christmas present of 2008!